Missing School

I know I’ve mentioned that I’m missing preschool these days, when I have to come up with new and interesting means of entertaining my kids all by myself. The funny thing is, I’m not the only one who’s missing it. My 4-year-old woke up on Wednesday, quickly reminding me that it was a school day, and when I told her that she had no school this week, she started to cry: “But I love school!” So, any guilt I had for signing her up for the summer session evaporated right there.

It was so hard to get her used to preschool in the first place, that I couldn’t imagine pulling her out for the entire summer, then going through all of that separation anxiety stuff all over again in the fall. It’s easier on both of us if she goes all summer, too (same school, same teachers), because, like me, she functions better on a reliable schedule. Oh, and then there’s the fact during school, there are two less days per week that I have to come up with fun outings or projects to impress her.

Really, nothing I seem to come up with competes with the endless art projects, music teachers, dance sessions, and good friends she has available at school. And that’s how it should be. She’ll have plenty of years of having to go to school when she’d rather not, all of those teen years of just desperately wanting to sleep in instead of racing to make it to her first class of the day. I’m glad she has these less serious years of sliding and singing the day away, when school is just a really fun play group she can’t wait to get back to.